Medics accuse government of intimidation and seeking to criminalise urgent assistance to street protesters

Turkish government measures curbing the freedom of doctors in administering emergency treatment have been condemned by medical and human rights groups, with professionals accusing the government of intimidation and seeking to criminalise urgent assistance to street protesters.

No single policemen have been convicted of assault towards journalists during Turkey’s Gezi Resistance. While 59 journalists and 23 publishers entered 2014 behind bars, 13 defendants including 4 journalists have been convicted of “terrorism” charges according to Turkish Penal Code and Anti-Terror Act with 2 life sentences and a total of 1,609 years and 4 months of prison.

After working as a respected journalist for 25 years in numerous capacities, including a stint as a columnist at one of Turkey’s largest newspapers, Serdar Akinan found himself in early 2013 at a career crossroads: would he continue working in the mainstream Turkish media or open up a pizza place?

Zarakolu’s son, Deniz Zarakolu, who is an editor at Belge Publishing House and a Ph.D. student at Bilgi University, was arrested weeks earlier, on Oct 7. On March 19, 2012, Zarakolu was formally indicted under the charge of “aiding and abetting an

A few hours ago two ISPs, Turknet and Uydunet announced blockage. Not other ISPs yet apply the court rule.

A few days ago Vimeo was blocked first, then unblocked. But particular videos could be blocked in Vimeo and other video sharing sites. Government’s excuse is to block sex videos of government officials but as one might guess, it will go beyond that for sure.

We suspect that they are testing DPI powered blockages partially and there is no homogeneous blockage for the moment.

Very probably government excuse will be like this “you see, we have to block all the site in order to prevent a video to be seen, with the new law, we will ban only particular videos” WHICH means most of the opposition figures’ social media accounts will be blocked…

I believe with all circumvention tools, we will bypass these restrictions, but why should we deal with the censorship at all?

In a day, the new Internet law may be accepted in the Parliament. Then 18 January Internet Freedom marches all over Turkey will become even more vital…

People can see that these articles are a response to Gezi protests and the current corruption investigations,” says Yaman Akdeniz, law professor in Istanbul’s Bilgi University, an active critic of internet restrictions in Turkey

In the mean time, AKP leadership was born out of Necmettin Erbakan‘s conservative/Islamist line of parties, and most of current leadership is attributed to a Naqshi tariqah branch, Esad Coşan circle.

FGM and AKP leadership never politically allied until AKP’s rise. The latter had an explicitly Islamist agenda, and Erbakan’s previous parties were closed down by the Turkish State. FGM rarely challenged State Authority explicitly and harshly criticized other Islamist group who were explicit about it (like in 28 February days, against headscarf ban). FGM decided to focus on educational system and mobilized its followers to pursue careers in education, legal institutions and police forces. FGM network has gone beyond Turkey and became global as the FGM’s schools and universities were founded from Africa to Northern America. FGM’s private prep schools from the national university entrance exam had become the most powerful network in the country. Current tension began with AKP’s move to close down these prep schools. However, tense relations between to factions would lead to an open struggle anyway. Competition over state resources would inevitably be tense. Since there is no powerful organized opposition and armed forces are at the command of Erdoğan for the moment, AKP could decide to start the fight…

Ideologically, FGM movement in general more conservative and (Turkish) nationalist. Socially, most of the members are more educated than core AKP follower base. AKP relies on populist mobilization which sometimes becomes openly fascit while FGM relies on bureaucratic power and never ending alliances.

AKP gradually broke down all alliances as it became more powerful. At the moment, we de facto live a one-party regime under AKP rule.

On specific issues, Kurdish question. FGM’s inherent Turkish nationalism worked against solving the Kurdish question. Since its rival AKP initiated a peace process, FGM positioned itself against the process. I do not believe AKP is sincere in the peace process (you can just look at my blog archive to see how Erdoğan was anti-Kurdish a few years ago), however, it is politically pragmatic and sees this process will get more votes and consolidate its power in the Western lands as there will not be more fighting in the East…

On the Gezi Protests, we now how AKP reacted and that where my basic opposition to AKP is born out. FGM favored a double-strategy. In its Turkish media, it was slightly pro-AKP but in its English media (Today’s Zaman) it was explicitly pro-Gezi. Now that there is open warfare between two factions, FGM becomes more pro-Gezi. However, under normal conditions, FGM never favors street activism and its supporters in police forces do not seem to be different from other police personnel in treating activists.

In foreign relations, FGM favors international status quo. That means you won’t hear much against EU, US or Israel. In the Mavi Marmara case, FGM criticized Turkish government and since then some of the militant sections within pro-goverment circles including IHH, are pursuing revenge against the movement. Its Sunnism will probably be working against more relations with Iran, too.

One of the many consequences of this tension is that FGM supporters become more vocal nowadays. They are not hiding. That was one thing I was very critical of FGM. A continous taqiyye. This process, apart from many negative happenings, is leading a further civilianisation of a closed-circle organization…

In the mean time, if AKP wins this struggle, there does not seem to be any organized opposition to Erdoğan left within the Turkish State and a one-man rule actually begins…

p.s. if there comes any feedback or questions, I will try to elaborate…